In 2017, my wife gave me a light bar for Christmas. I installed it only to discover a horrible whistling noise. Was my light bar defective in some way? No! The whistling had been a huge problem with no real fix. At that moment I built the first prototype with some tape and PVC. Sprayed it black, put a cool bumper sticker on it, and took it for a ride. We effectively killed the whistle.
My wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told her to surprise me and go on my Amazon account and pick something from my shopping cart. She did and I received a set of light bar mounts and a light bar. The hard part about installing this stuff was that I had to remove a roof rack that was mounted to the body and modify a way for the snorkel air intake to not be in the way of the light bar.
I spent several days getting my jeep ready to install a light bar, and finally did it on a cold Saturday in December. It took half the day to install it and get it ready for a test drive. Everything looked good, and I was excited to show it off on the highway. However, as soon as I hit the road, I heard a horrendous whistling noise that sounded like a jet engine. I quickly turned around and went back home, confused and disappointed. I had no idea that light bars made wind noise, so I turned to Google on my phone to research the issue. I was surprised to find out that it was a common problem with many DIY fixes available.
I figured out the best fix for me. I decided I would wrap the back of the light bar with perforated aluminum panning to cover up the fins on back to eliminate the whistling. I succeeded in that and hit the road. I pulled out on that same stretch of highway and was again quickly faced with horrible wind noise. This time it was just the jet engine noise. The whistling was gone. I drove back to the house and sat and thought about how I could make the light more aerodynamic in front.
I woke up early on Sunday morning with a few ideas to fix the horrible noise in my jeep. After having coffee, I went to Lowes to find a round tube to modify and settled on a piece of PVC conduit. I cut the pipe in half to create a semicircle shape and added wood blocks to create a flat surface. After spray painting it black and waiting for glue to dry, I placed the pipe on the face of the light and used Velcro buckle straps to hold it in place. I added an off-road sticker and went for a test drive. I hit 30 mph then 40 then 50 before I knew it I was up to 80 and there was no noise. Thank goodness it worked, as I put a lot of time into it.
I went all week testing the cover with no issues to and from work. I even got a few compliments on it at work. Saturday my neighbors were having people over for the game. I pulled up and took some far away pictures of the jeep and posted it on my jeep club facebook page then went inside. Literally in 20 minutes I had about 20 people asking me where I got it and could they buy one. It was at that point I knew I had something, so I deleted the post. I then told the guys to come out and see whatI made and go for a test drive at halftime. They all loved the look and the performance and said I might be onto something, and I should make them and sell them. Little did they know I was already thinking that.
I woke up early again with this fire in my brain that I could not get out. That fire was the desire to manufacture these into a big business. I went back to my kitchen table for another think tank session. I decided to get out some copy paper and a sharpie marker and start drawing my prototypes. I was there most of the day drawing out all the possibilities. The first one I drew was the one you see today.
I quickly formed an LLC named AeroX Industries. I came up with AeroX because the product was about aerodynamics and the X meant X number of things. AeroX with industries on it allowed me to sell anything in any industry. The only thing I didn’t have a name for is the actual product yet. That came later in the story.
I started my own company to make covers for jeeps, and initially planned to use fabric and a pool noodle to make an aerodynamic shape. However, it was difficult to find a manufacturer to make a small run, so I switched to a plastic version. I talked to many different companies, but they all said it wouldn't work. I didn't give up and eventually found a company that was willing to take a chance on me. When their engineering team said no, I pitched my product to a nearby company, saying that I was referred by the first company. They agreed to take a look and ultimately decided to manufacture the covers.
We had the name of the company figured out, but we still needed a catchy name for the light bar cover. I struggled to get this done until my wife said it should have the word Aero on it since the company name was AeroX. At that time I was thinking about calling it Lidz with a Z but quickly got shot down on that idea. Then it hit us.....I say us because my wife claims that she thought of it before I did but to be fair we both did, we just weren’t around each other when we both come up with it. That’s when the name AeroLidz was born.
I was extremely nervous on the day I presented my product to the off-road community, as it was a new idea that no one had ever thought of before. To make matters worse, the manufacturer did not have the production run ready and the covers that were shipped were deformed and did not fit properly. My best friend Shawn Spratley was with me and we were under a lot of pressure to sell the product. We worked hard to wrap the cover in vinyl and cut it to fit properly. Despite the challenges, the show was a huge success and we even got asked to compete in a new product of the year award at the SEMA show in Vegas. I was ecstatic and could see a bright future ahead.
I was approached during our first show in Kentucky by the owner of The Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion event in Tennessee. I had only three months to prepare for the show, and it was a stressful time as we faced several setbacks with the manufacture of our parts. Luckily, a friend came to our aid and shared their booth space with us. With our parts loaded in my 10ft box trailer, we headed to Pigeon Forge LeConte center in Tennessee and set up our booth. Despite my nerves, the show turned out to be a huge success, with people lining up at our booth to buy our product. We sold out by the end of the show, and it was an amazing experience that made me feel incredibly proud of what we had accomplished.
The business is doing well, and I'm always looking for ways to improve our products. I wanted to add a customization factor to the product and thought of using vinyl wrap, but it was too expensive and labor-intensive. While experimenting with vinyl, I discovered a cool feature where the logo illuminated with the bright light on the cover. I then had the idea of sliding a bumper sticker inside the cover, but I was concerned about it getting wet or blowing out. I went to Lowes and found polystyrene poster board in three colors and cut them into strips. The green one illuminated like a glow stick and looked awesome with black lettered stickers on it. This gave birth to the insert, which we evolved into what it is today, taking several years and a lot of technology and testing to perfect.
I attended the biggest aftermarket parts car show in the world, SEMA, in December 2017 and was amazed by the innovative products and companies present there. After a successful year selling Aerolidz products, I registered the company with SEMA and booked the show for 2018. At the SEMA summit in June, I learned how to exhibit at the show and even jumped off the Stratosphere Hotel on a bungee. However, during my stay in Vegas, I left my phone in an Uber and panicked as I thought I had lost all my important information. Luckily, I was able to log into my Uber account from my iPad and track the driver, who eventually returned my phone. At the show, we were put in the overflow tents but still attended media meetings and entered our product in the new product showcase. We didn't win the free booth for next year, but we did win 3 Global media awards from Australia and Dubai. Despite feeling like we didn't get enough traffic, overall, it was a great experience and I looked forward to next year's show.
In 2019, our company had one of its best years ever. We attended 20 shows all across the US and made many new friends. The year ended with a big bang as we attended the prestigious SEMA show in December, this time in the North Hall which is dedicated to mobile electronics. We invested in a 20x20 booth and showcased a great lineup of vehicles, including Troy Gayton's Jeep JK, Marvin Stammel's Jeepster, and my Jeep JKU. This show helped us establish our brand and make many valuable connections for our wholesale strategy.
In 2019, we had a great year and were looking to start off 2020 with a bang by doubling our show schedule. Sales were on fire in the first few months of the year, but suddenly everything changed when the pandemic hit. We heard horror stories of businesses closing by the thousands, and I knew we needed to adapt to survive. So, I decided to ramp up our ad spend on social media and focus on e-commerce. This decision changed our business forever. With everyone stuck at home, we had a captive audience and sales started to increase. It took a few months, but eventually traffic and sales skyrocketed. By Christmas time, we were struggling to keep up with demand. It was a crazy year, but we made it through and came out stronger on the other side.
This year was insane for our business. Due to the pandemic, the government gave out free money to save the economy. Many people used that money to buy things online and for outdoor activities. This was great for us because we sell outdoor gear. We grew rapidly to meet the demand, bringing all of our printing in-house and expanding our lines to more wholesale companies. We also built a custom trailer for shows and doubled down on marketing to reach a wider audience. It was a crazy year, but we were able to thrive because of the circumstances.
With the craziest year behind us we prepared for another awesome year This time we launched the GEN 2 cover. We took all the feedback from over the 5 years and made the Dual row cover better. It has been a great success. We look forward to
bring out more great products in the near future. We plan to have a new Custom insert App that allows you to do so much more. Maybe we will have the curved version soon..... Time will tell. Thank you to all of the customers out there that we have met on this amazing dream come true journey. Can’t wait to see what’s next for Aerolidz and its customers.
